The month-long exhibition features the work of 19 artists from around the world, with 12 posters reflecting the Olympic Games and eight the Paralympics.

Among those asked to take part were Turner Prize winner Chris Ofili and Asao Tokolo, who designed the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic logos.

It will be the second time that posters have welcomed an Olympics to Tokyo.

In 1964, organisers were all too aware that the language barrier might cause problems. Very few locals spoke foreign languages at that time and few visitors spoke Japanese.

The solution was to devise a wide range of visual communication.

This was also reflected in the philosophy of Yusaku Kamekura who designed four posters for the Games.

"We have to create a way to communicate visually, so that when you look at a symbol, you know where you are going," he said. 

"The most important element is the pictogram, a universal element for communication.

"The Rising Sun and the Olympic emblem" was the first official 1964 poster to appear. It showed the sun emblem from Japan's national flag positioned above five Olympic rings and the words "Tokyo 1964" rendered in gold. A total of 100,000 copies were printed.

This was adapted to be used on a range of other publications including official programmes and signs.

A second featured runners powering away at the start of the 100 metres. This image was a photograph taken by Osamu Hayasaki and featured Japanese athletes alongside American airmen from the Tachikawa Airfield. 

Waseda University student Koji Iwamoto was the model for "a butterfly swimmer", another hugely popular poster which had a print run of 70,000.

The fourth image in the series showed a Torch bearer. It was a photograph of a Juntendo University athlete called "Tanaka". Again, it was taken by Hayasaki under the direction of Kamekura.

The four posters were widely acclaimed and won the Milan poster prize.

Margaret Timmers, the former senior curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, arranged a major touring exhibition of Olympic posters in 2008.

She described them as "a key element in the sophisticated visual identity programmes that covered every aspect of the Games presentation".

Even at the Ancient Olympics, the graphic expression of sport was common. Pottery was sometimes decorated with images of those taking part in sport.

In the early 17th century Robert Dover staged Cotswold "Olimpick" Games in the Gloucestershire village of Chipping Campden. In 1636 a series of political pamphlets and verses appeared under the title "Annalia Dubrensia". This gave details of the Games and also included an engraving showing the sport. It is used to this day in posters to promote the Games which take place this year in May.

The true golden age of poster art came in the late 19th century when techniques of colour printing were more advanced.

In France, it was the era known as "la belle epoque".

Renowned poster artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec designed a famous poster to advertise the "Simpson chain" used on bicycles.

Emile Levy’s for the Folies Bergere included "women of the épée".

In 1900 a swordswoman was also depicted on a well known poster to advertise the Paris Exhibition which was staged in conjunction with the Olympics. Although women did take part in some Olympic sports that year, the first women fencers were not seen at the Games until 1924, when they were also staged in Paris. 

When Stockholm was awarded the Olympics in 1912, the organisers rapidly realised the value of an effective poster campaign.

"We take the liberty of calling to your attention the extraordinary importance of an effective and systematically organised advertisement abroad of the approaching Olympic Games and hereby appeal to Swedish businessmen travelling abroad to support in this matter by carrying with them on their journeys most especially the large poster of the Games," organisers announced. 

A competition was launched to find a suitable poster.

The winning design was by Olle Hjortzberg of the Swedish Royal Academy. His work featured a nude male athlete unfurling the Swedish flag as behind him athletes waved flags of other participating nations.

Strategic ribbons were also added to preserve the modesty of the figures but the official Olympic report noted that, in China, the postmaster general had forbidden the exhibition of the poster as it was "offensive to Chinese ideas of dignity".

When it was displayed at a railway station in The Netherlands, local authorities confiscated the poster and claimed it was "in the highest degree immoral".

The Dutch later had a re-think but organisers noted that the poster had been banned in 266 places abroad.

There were also objections from political quarters about the order in which the flags were displayed, although it was insisted "their placing was determined by colouristic not political considerations".

Whatever the controversy, it became one of the best known Olympic posters.

"Various opinions have been expressed regarding the value of the poster from an advertising point of view, but it may be said that its artistic merits have been universally acknowledged, and that in a special degree from the most competent quarters," Swedish officials noted. 

It was a far cry from 1908 when the Games were staged in conjunction with the Franco Britannic Exhibition at White City in the West of London.

The official poster was so little known that when the official International Olympic Committee (IOC) collection of reproduction posters was released in the early 1980s, they used the cover of the daily programme instead.

The official wall poster eventually came to light when Bob Wilcox, vice-president of the Society of Olympic Collectors, scrutinised an old photograph from 1908.

It showed the main entrance to the exhibition grounds and a poster advertising Olympic Games in what was described as the "Great Stadium".

The poster showed  an athlete in a white running vest on a green background. Behind him were the Stadium and flags of the nations.

The identity of the designer remains a mystery to this day, although it was chosen after a competition organised by the British Olympic Council.

In the early years of the Olympic Movement there were no winter Games, but in 1924 an international sports week was planned for Chamonix. Although the Games in Chamonix were later designated as the first Olympic Winter Games, they were described at the time as "International competitions in conjunction with the eighth Olympiad" – the number assigned to the Paris 1924 Olympics.

Auguste Matisse designed the main poster. It was one of a number published by a railway company which had also underwritten the construction of the sports facilities to the tune of 20,000 francs.

"Matisse's eagle dominates five bobsledders dressed in yellow to very good effect and opened a new direction for the Olympics," said Jean Durry, founder of the French Museum of Sport.

In the interwar years, posters were often used as political propaganda.

Although the Soviet Union did not become part of the Olympic family until 1952, they launched their own domestic multi-sport competition in 1928. It was known as a "Spartakiad" to pay tribute to the Spartans in ancient Greece. Posters were produced by Red Sport International to publicise the competitions.

The German Government threw their full weight behind the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and Garmisch Partenkirchen, although some countries produced striking anti-Olympic posters in protest at the Nazi regime.

The Olympics were staged on a monumental scale and the posters were unmistakably Teutonic in style.

A publicity commission was established to promote the Games abroad.

The design finally chosen was by Berlin artist Franz Wurbel. His work showed an athlete wearing the crown of olives worn by the victor in ancient Games. He looms above the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin against a golden sky. The design echoed many political posters produced at the time.

It was published by the German railway publicity bureau and an astonishing 243,710 copies were printed in 19 languages.

The poster for the Winter Olympics held in Garmisch Partenkirchen was a similar "idealised" representation of a winter sportsman.

The skier was shown with a raised arm in what is usually interpreted as a Nazi salute.

This was a delicate point in 1936. At the Opening Ceremony in Berlin, some nations including the French gave what was described as the "Olympic salute".

The similarity with the Nazi salute was not lost on the spectators.

Two years later, the release of the official film of the Berlin Games was accompanied by another poster campaign. Olympia, directed by Leni Riefenstahl, was the first film record of the Games to make a major artistic impact.

By this time, the Games of 1940 had been awarded to Tokyo. A poster competition had been launched and Nori Kuroda produced a design featuring a warrior from the earliest years of Japanese history.

It never saw the light of day as Japan's invasion of China forced them to hand back the Games.

The 1940 Games were then assigned to Helsinki.

A total of 72 Finnish artists entered a poster competition and the winning design was by Ilmari Sysimetsa. It showed the statue of legendary Finnish runner Paavo Nurmi with a backdrop of the globe.

Along the foot of the poster were the proposed dates. The 1940 Games were to begin on July 20, 1940. In fact, World War Two made any thoughts of the Olympic Games that year an impossibility.

The poster itself did have a second chance. It came 12 years after the Games for which it was originally designed.

Some 115,000 copies were printed for Helsinki 1952. Only the dates were changed.

In the meantime, London 1948 had produced another design classic. The work of Walter Herz, it depicted a classical discus thrower in front of the Westminster clock tower – often mistakenly described as "Big Ben".

The hands on the clock face point to the exact time that King George VI declared the Games open.

Although graphic design has been an integral part of the Games for over a century, the concept of the "look" of the Games is a more modern idea.

For the Mexico Olympics in 1968, the graphic design used throughout venues and in uniforms for Games staff was also coordinated in the posters produced for the Games.

These were designed with the motto "information, aesthetics, functionalism".

It was a similar story in 1972 where Otl Aicher headed a large creative team which produced the posters for the Munich Games. Pastel colours were a feature of the official posters which remain instantly recognisable, even today.

The creative team included cartoonist Gerhard Joksch who revealed: "I did something with the last poster that most people don’t know about. I included all my team members from that time in silhouette form."

Renowned British artist David Hockney was amongst those who submitted special posters. His lithograph entitled "The Diver" is highly collectable.

Such has been the explosion in media technology that Olympic posters now rarely include the date of the Games but are used to convey other themes such as peace.

For London 2012, the Organising Committee commissioned what the Tate gallery described as "leading contemporary artists". These were exhibited throughout the summer at the Tate Britain gallery in London.

The group chosen included artist musician Martin Creed, who not only designed a poster but was also behind "All the Bells", a project to welcome the Games.

In 2016, for the Games in Rio de Janeiro, a dozen Brazilian artists were joined by one Colombian to create work for the Games.

The designs for Rio made use of bright pastel colours.

Artist Gringo Cardia insisted: "Rio is a natural Olympic city. People love to be outside practicing sport."

Cardia worked in conjunction with street artists and took inspiration from the beaches and the sea which are such an important part of the city.

In the archives at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, a vast collection of posters and other visual representations is also maintained. These include posters for key Olympic anniversaries.

A special poster was produced in 1914 to mark the 20th anniversary of the foundation of the IOC, celebrated in Paris.

The golden jubilee fell in 1944 when much of the world was still at war.

Even so, a special poster was designed by Henri von der Muhll to commemorate the landmark. Festivities took place in Lausanne from June 17 to July 5. 

The poster was a lithograph of a bust from classical Greece on a grey background with the legend "Jubile Olympique".

In more recent times, IOC Sessions have also been welcomed by a special posters.

Swiss painter Hans Erni produced a poster to commemorate the 1986 session held in Lausanne and was responsible for a number of murals in Olympic House.

When the IOC celebrated its centenary in 1994, another competition was held to find a logo and poster.

Among the entries was a design by Canadian artist Wei Yew, which included the motif of a dove of peace. It did not win the contest but was adapted slightly from the original template and used as the emblem for the Olympic truce. It has become widely known in posters around the world.